"Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn't have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand."
Matt 13:3-9 NLT
Many years ago, when I was in Jr. High, our school had a "Hobby Day". When the designated day arrived, the gymnasium was packed full of tables loaded with pets, stamp collections, model cars, trains and a variety of other things.
I, too, participated by including my hobby in the event. However, my addition to the display of hobbies had to remain outside as one could not get a 14 foot tall and 30 foot wide combine harvester through the gym door. Yes, that's right, I brought a combine to school. This will give you a little insight to how my mind works...
Growing up, I worked on a farm and I considered farming to be my hobby. It was all that I did besides going to school and I went to school, only because I had to go. I was an industrious and hard worker, dedicated to my hobby to the point that I would get up at 0'dark-thirty and ride my bicycle four miles to the farm to do my daily chores. I made $2.50 per day plus I ate all my meals with my boss' family. It boiled down to a lot of hard, repetitive work for very little pay and I loved it. Looking back on that time, I can see how God prepared me for his plan for my adult life.
One of my favorite times of the year was harvest time. And, being a young boy, I could only watch as the combines were used to harvest the soybeans and corn. These massive machines can shake the ground as they pick, separate, store the harvest while discharging the waste in their wake.
Combines are efficient machines. They can cover a lot of ground quickly and easily, far outpacing their predecessors. Today's models can plot the fields electronically, showing which plots of the field produced the highest yields indicating the changes that need to be made in the sowing, fertilizing and growing process.
This morning in my devotions, I was reading this passage in Matthew, chapter 13. My mind immediately went back to my "farming" days and, specifically, to the fact that a combine blows out a heavier proportion of separated waste - the chaff, stalks, stems and leaves - than the fruit of the harvest.
Jesus knew that not everyone who hears will believe. He knew that not everyone who hears will understand. And, he knew that not everyone who hears will follow. Those that don't believe, understand and follow, will eventually, be like the chaff and be discarded. That is heartbreaking to me and I hope it is to you as well.
It is not God's will that anyone be discarded by their own choosing. So, what are the options? We could, fold our arms and say, "Well, that's just the way it is and there is nothing we can do about it." Or. We could pray as Jesus instructed us to do.
He said to his disciples, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few.
So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields."
Matt 9:37-38
Knowing that not everybody is going to accept Christ, as disheartening and sad as that is, should compel us to take wider swaths through our communities, our regions and our world. Our churches should evaluate the fields that they are called by God to tend. When an outreach is blessed by God and produces results in people taking a step toward Jesus, widen the effort in that plot of the field - pray more, plant more, water more and fertilize more. Jesus' command was and still is for us to pray for a widening of the harvest effort.
In a day when we see the signs of Christ's return, instead of narrowing the opening of the way that leads to what Christ called an already narrow gate, let's open up the door to that narrow gate wide - through our relationships, our churches, our outreaches and, most importantly, our prayers. Let's glean all that we can knowing that some will choose to hear, understand, believe and follow.
1. Are you in the field or are you enjoying watching the wind blow through the harvest?
2. What's in your hand, a sickle or the steering wheel of a combine?
3. Who is beside you? What's in their hand?
4. Who is following you? Do you feel the ground rumbling?
Still bringing the combine...
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